A WILDLIFE charity’s coffers have been boosted by thousands thanks to the generosity of an award-winning Cotswold design company.
Family-run Robert Welch, which exports cutlery, kitchen knives and homeware across the world, has raised £3,825.83 for Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre at its biannual staff sale.
The hospital, which takes in wildlife ranging from injured garden birds to badges, foxes and deer, treats more than 8,000 patients a year at its headquarters in Beckford near Evesham.
Funded entirely by donations, Vale Wildlife’s purpose-built centre costs more than £2.5K a day to run.
Its electricity bill alone is £5K a month and its army of volunteers and two charity shops struggle to keep up with the bills.
“Sustainability is at the heart of our business,” said Amy Brown, brand and campaigns manager for Robert Welch, which this month celebrates its 70th year in business.
“Many of our staff have reached out to Vale Wildlife over the years with everything from orphaned hedgehogs they’ve found in their gardens to injured ducks.
“We’ve long admired the incredible work they do, and it’s been a delight to support them with proceeds from our latest staff sale.”
The sale was held at Robert Welch’s state-of-the-art headquarters in Evesham, although the company has a well-known shop in Chipping Campden, where the business was first established.
The Radford Building HQ boasts rainwater harvesting systems and a wildflower meadow, a huge solar installation, sensor-controlled LED lighting, a zero waste-to-landfill policy and an all-electric forklift fleet.
During building works, dozens of bat and bird boxes were installed in adjoining woodland to relocate wildlife disturbed by the building’s construction.
Natalie Gould of Vale Wildlife Hospital, added: “We were thrilled to be chosen by the fabulous team at Robert Welch for such a generous donation.
“The centre receives no Government funding and has running costs of over £75K every month.
“We are only able to continue to help over 8,000 wildlife casualties every year because of the kindness and generosity of people, so we are so grateful to the team for helping us to help Britain’s wildlife.”
